Owners of older S-Class sedans might suddenly want to sell. Mercedes-Benz has opened orders on the refreshed flagship in Japan — and it’s no longer the car it was six months ago. The entry S 450 d 4MATIC starts at 15.98 million yen. That’s roughly $99,500 at current rates. First deliveries land in September.
Outside, the sedan got bolder — but Mercedes didn’t touch the soul of the S-Class. The grille grew about 20%, chrome bars went from three to four, and for the first time the grille itself lights up. The rear gets star-pattern tail lamps. Up front, DIGITAL Light carries the same motif. This isn’t a facelift for the sake of it. It’s an expensive visual nudge to make the car read as fresh, even when the owner doesn’t want to shout about their budget.
But the real revolution is inside. And it’s quietly flipping the market. The new S-Class runs on its own operating system MB.OS and the fourth generation of MBUX. The cabin gets a 14.4-inch central screen plus a 12.3-inch passenger display. Navigation runs on Google Maps. The virtual assistant taps ChatGPT, Microsoft Bing and Google Gemini at once. Plus full 3D navigation. Mercedes no longer sells just leather and silence. The Germans are now selling a digital environment that can be updated over the air.
Under the hood of the S 450 d 4MATIC sits the new inline-six diesel OM 656 Evo. And here something the auto world has been waiting on for years finally happened: this is the first production car with an electrically heated catalytic converter. It slashes emissions immediately after start-up. The S 580 4MATIC long gets the V8 M177 Evo: 395 kW (about 537 hp) and 750 Nm. Every engine gets a 17-kW integrated starter-generator.
The S-Class is once again betting on familiar luxury. But the real fight inside is no longer about wood and leather. It’s about whose digital system stays current the longest. And this, it seems, is only the beginning.
